1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive air conditioning apparatus.
2.Description of the Related Art
A conventional general-purpose type automotive heating apparatus is constructed as follows: It supplies high temperature circulating water, which has been used for cooling an engine, to a radiator, thereby cooling the circulating water. At the same time, it also supplies a part of the high temperature circulating water to a heater, and thereby it carries out the heat exchange from the high temperature circulating water to air at the heater. Consequently, it supplies hot air to a passenger room. The circulating water going through the heater is again used for cooling the engine together with the return circulating water from the radiator.
However, this conventional general-purpose type automotive heating apparatus cannot supply the hot air to the passenger room until the circulating water for cooling the engine becomes considerably hot in temperature. Therefore, especially under a relatively low temperature environment in cold areas or the like, it takes a long time to achieve the heating in the passenger room after the engine is started.
Hence, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 2-246,823, an automotive heating apparatus has been developed in order to achieve the heating in the passenger room relatively quickly after starting the engine. The automotive heating apparatus comprises a viscous fluid coupling which is connected to an engine cooling circuit.
The viscous fluid coupling of the recently developed automotive heating apparatus includes a housing, an input shaft disposed rotatably in the housing and receiving an engine driving force by way of an electromagnetic clutch, a rotor disposed in the housing, fixed to the input shaft and having a labyrinth groove including a plurality of and a large area of walls, a cover fixed to the housing and having a labyrinth groove engaging with the labyrinth groove of the rotor and disposed away therefrom with predetermined spaces provided therebetween, and a viscous fluid such as a silicone oil or the like sealed between the rotor and the cover. Further, in the viscous fluid coupling, the circulating water is sealed between the cover and the housing, and it is circulated to an engine cooling apparatus.
In the viscous fluid coupling of the recently developed automotive heating apparatus, when the input shaft is rotated in order to rotate the rotor, the viscous fluid sealed between the rotor and the cover is caused to generate heat by the stirring and the shearing resulting from the relative rotation between the rotor and the cover. The heat thus generated is conveyed to the circulating water sealed between the cover and the housing, and thereby heating the circulating water. Finally, the circulating water thus heated is used for the heating in the passenger room through a heater.
On the other hand, there is a compressor used in a conventional general-purpose type automotive cooling apparatus. For example, the compressor is a vane type compressor, and it includes an input shaft to which driving forces resulting from an engine are transmitted by way of an electromagnetic clutch, a cylinder held between side plates so as to form an enclosed area, a rotor disposed in the cylinder and fixed to the input shaft, and a plurality of vanes fitted into the rotor so as to project in the radial directions.
However, the automotive engines have been required to produce high outputs recently, and accordingly the automotive engine rooms have been highly congested. As a result, there have arisen the problems on the on-boardabilities of the various component parts to be accommodated in the engine rooms. When boarding the conventional automotive heating apparatuses and the conventional cooling apparatuses in the automotive engine rooms independently in the conventional manner, they suffer from the limitations in the installation spaces. Thus, it is hard to carry out the installing operation efficiently.